Foreign Relations

Since obtaining full independence at the end of 1971, security
concerns have been a major focus of the UAE's foreign relations. Indeed,
it was uncertain in the early 1970s whether the UAE would endure as a
viable state. Saudi Arabia, for example, refused to recognize the new
federation because of an unresolved border dispute with Abu Dhabi over
the Al Buraymi Oasis. Iran and Oman also contested UAE claims to certain
territories. In addition, the discovery of extensive petroleum deposits
in the 1960s prompted Iraq and other states to challenge the legitimacy
of the UAE's ruling families. Because the UAE was a relatively small
state, its leaders recognized that defending the country's security from
both internal and external threats depended on skillful management of
diplomatic relations with other countries, particularly larger and more
powerful neighbors such as Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.

A principal goal of the UAE's foreign policy has been to contain the
spillover effects of various regional crises. For example, during the
initial years of UAE independence, a major insurrectionary movement
threatened to overthrow the government in neighboring Oman. This
movement also supported a group known as the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Oman and the Arab Gulf, which aimed at establishing a
republican regime in the UAE. During the mid-1970s, repercussions of the
escalating civil war in Lebanon reverberated throughout the Persian
Gulf. Subsequently, the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the civil war and
Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, and the Iran-Iraq War all affected
the UAE in various ways.

Despite its criticisms of United States policies toward the
Palestinians, the UAE perceives its evolving relationship with the
United States as providing a measure of protection from these crises.
Thus, by 1990-91, when it joined with the United States in the military
effort to force Iraq out of Kuwait, the UAE already had become a de
facto member of the United States strategic umbrella over the region.

The Iraqi invasion and occupation of Kuwait were a shock to the UAE.
Prior to that crisis, the UAE had tried to demonstrate solidarity on
inter-Arab issues. In particular, it had supported the cause of
Palestinian Arabs, both within the League of Arab States (Arab League),
of which it was a member, and within international forums. In practical
terms, this meant that the UAE did not recognize Israel. When Egypt
signed a separate peace agreement with Israel in 1979, the UAE joined
other Arab states in breaking diplomatic relations with Egypt. The UAE
did not, however, expel the thousands of Egyptian workers in the UAE or
interfere with their transfer of remittances home. For the UAE, the
crisis over Kuwait demonstrated a lack of Arab unity on a critical Arab
issue. The UAE joined the Arab states that opposed the Iraqi invasion
and supported the use of force to compel Iraq's withdrawal of troops.

More fundamental for the UAE, this crisis exposed the failure of the
GCC, of which the UAE had been a founding member in 1981, as a deterrent
collective security organization. Although it was not prepared to
abandon the GCC--it derived other benefits from this alliance with
Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia--the UAE believed that
new security arrangements were necessary. The UAE initially supported
expanding the GCC framework to include formal military ties with Egypt
and Syria. When this option seemed unrealistic, the UAE concluded that a
security relationship with the United States should be continued.
Consequently, negotiations began during the summer of 1991 and continued
for more than a year. In late 1992, officials of both countries signed
an agreement that permitted the United States to use some UAE bases
temporarily and to pre-position supplies on UAE territory.

The negotiations with the United States may have been a factor in the
UAE's 1992 problems with Iran, a country that opposed a continuing
United States military presence in the region. Like Iraq, Iran is a
large neighbor--and a much closer one--with a recent history of policies
that discomfited the UAE. Throughout the 1980s, the UAE had striven with
difficulty to maintain neutrality in the Iran-Iraq War. That conflict
was also a source of internal UAE tension because Abu Dhabi tended to
support Iraq while Dubayy was more sympathetic to Iran. After the war
ended in 1988, Iran appeared to single out the UAE for special and
friendly attention. By 1992 the UAE was the Arab country with which Iran
had the closest commercial relations. Thus, the crisis that erupted in
April 1992 over disputed islands in the Persian Gulf seemed unexpected.

The dispute with Iran over the sovereignty of three small
islands--Abu Musa, Greater Tumb, and Lesser Tumb--had been dormant for
twenty years. It was rekindled in 1992 when Iranian officials on Abu
Musa refused to permit UAE contract workers to disembark, in apparent
contravention of a shared sovereignty agreement. Iran had claimed all
three islands in 1970, before the UAE was formed. On the eve of
independence in 1971, the amirate of Sharjah, which had jurisdiction
over Abu Musa, accepted an agreement negotiated between London and
Tehran that permitted Iran to establish a military garrison in the
northern part of the island and allowed Sharjah to administer the
civilian population living in the southern part. The agreement provided
for Iran and Sharjah to share the proceeds from an offshore oil field
but otherwise left the question of ultimate sovereignty to be resolved
at some unspecified future time.

Greater Tumb and Lesser Tumb are two uninhabited islands claimed by
Ras al Khaymah but occupied by Iran since 1971. Unlike Sharjah, Ras al
Khaymah never accepted an Iranian claim to the islands and protested
Britain's failure to interfere with Iran's occupation. Indeed, it was
the amirate's anger over the 1971 occupation that caused it to refrain
from joining the UAE for several months. In the midst of the 1992 crisis
over Abu Musa, Ras al Khaymah resurrected its grievance over Greater
Tumb and Lesser Tumb, thus enflaming an already delicate situation. At
the end of the year, Iran and Sharjah quietly agreed to a restoration of
the status quo ante the crisis, but the incidents left the UAE feeling
wary of Iranian intentions.

In 1993 the UAE maintained relatively cordial relations with
countries outside the Middle East. It was a member of the United Nations
and its specialized agencies. It also was a member of the Organization
of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and the Organization of the Islamic
Conference.